It’s not that surprising that New Zealand made it to number 2 on the CNN list of places to be in 2011.

Apparently the team at CNN had a chat with three travel experts (Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet; Pauline Frommer, creator of Pauline Frommer’s guidebooks; and Martin Rapp, senior vice president of leisure sales at Altour) who, between them have decided that New Zealand is one of the top places to be in 2011 (second only to the big apple).

This may well be due to the 2011 Rugby World Cup which they say will add excitement to an already popular destination, however kiwified travellers and locals already  know that it’s the place to be because it’s just plain gorgeous.

The crew at Transfercar however, look forward to a great new year with all the hundreds more cars and campervans we hope the 2011 Rugby World Cup will bring to the industry.

Here’s CNN’s list of top 2011 destinations:

1. New York
2. New Zealand
3. Peruvian Amazon
4. Barcelona, Spain
5. Norway
6. Albania
7. Japan
8. Guatemala
9. Bulgaria

If you’re planning on driving a  relocation car or campervan in New Zealand for the first time, these tips will assist you in understanding the rules and regulations of safe driving practices and help you have a safe and enjoyable vacation.

Not sure if you are allowed to drive?

Check out our article Driving in New Zealand

What’s the speed limit?

Speed limits are normally clearly posted by the road side.

New Zealand is blessed with gorgeous little winding roads as well as open stretches that go for miles. Every type of road in New Zealand has its good points and its bad.

If you’re driving in rural areas, watch out for gravel verges, especially on corners. Some isolated roads are unsealed and use gravel as the surface. In these cases, drive slowly.

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I was trawling the web looking for articles I thought our Transfercar drivers would be interested in and found this little beauty. Not only does it contain invaluable advise about travelling in the outback of Australia,  it’s a really good read!

SURVIVING AUSTRALIA’S OUTBACK

About three o’clock in the morning something woke me, and I lay listening. A strange rumbling came from somewhere out in the night. “Are you awake?” Cristi whispered softly. I whispered back that I was. “There’s something outside,” she said.
The northern Australia night was stifling. Beneath our flimsy tent we had gone to sleep in the coolest possible costumes – nothing at all. Now I got to my feet and tiptoed to the entrance to the tent. Gently I pulled open the flaps an inch apart and peered out. It was pitch black, and I could see nothing. I parted the tent flaps a bit more. There, not twenty feet from the tent, was a large crocodile.

By now Cristi was up and standing next to me. We stood there, stone-like, with nothing but a thin sheet of canvas between us and a twenty-foot crocodile.

The rumbling continued. It came from the crocodile’s stomach. It was tearing up the food we had left away from the campsite. It was a lesson of the Outback that I was happy to have learned: don’t store your food near your campsite.
Slowly it worked its way through the food, ripping apart a barbecued chicken with uncomfortable ease. Then it scurried away, toward the Herbert River, silhouetted against the horizon, immense, its red eyes gleaming in the moonlight. Finally it left, and as we went back to bed, I recalled a sign we had seen along the roadside earlier in the day. It warned travelers succinctly: “Beware of Crocodiles.”

Read the full story thanks to hackwriters.com.

This is an interesting article from Stuff.co.nz and one I would love to hear more about from Transfercar’s readers and drivers.  Post your comments here or on Facebook and tell us what your craziest/scariest or just weirdest animal experience was while travelling!

“Aw, isn’t it cute?”

That, right there, is the officially accepted response to any animal contact the world over. Animals are cute. They’re there to be photographed, adored, and occasionally fed.

But you know what? Not all animals are cute, or adorable, or even nice. Some of them are a rank pain in the butt.

When you travel, you come into contact with all sorts of animals you never even dreamed existed. Some of them are amazing creatures that you’ll be telling friends about for the rest of your life.

Some of them just annoy the hell out of you.

Read the full article here……..

Just something of interest about one of the nations Transfercar operates out of…..

The Lucky Country
Australia has long been known as the lucky country. This is not surprising when you learn it is the world’s largest iron ore exporter and largest producer of bauxite and alumina. Australia also has the world’s largest deposits of silver, zinc, zircon and easily extracted uranium (over 40% of world resources). It also has about 10 percent of the world’s gold resources.

How Big is Australia?
Australia is the word’s smallest continent and the world’s sixth largest country. Australia covers an area of 7,686,900 square kilometres. That’s slightly smaller than the United States mainland which is 7,827,848 square kilometres (does not include Hawaii and Alaska).

Natural Hazards
Australia’s main natural hazards are cyclones (hurricanes), drought and forest fires. The biggest killer of all has been heatwaves.

World’s Biggest Crocodiles

The tropical north of Australia is home to the world’s largest species of crocodile, the salt water crocodile. These creatures are protected in Australia. Males can occasionally grow to lengths of over 6 metres (20 feet). Each year one or two people are eaten by crocodiles in Australia.

Temperatures

Australia’s highest temperature, 51 degrees C (123 degrees F), was recorded at Oodnadatta, South Australia in 1960. The lowest temperature was minus 23 degrees C (minus 9 degrees F) measured high in the mountains at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales.

Biggest State

Western Australia is the biggest Australian state and covers one third of the continent. Its total area is over 2.5 million square kilometers. That makes it 3.6 times bigger than Texas, 4.6 times bigger than France and 11 times bigger than the UK. It’s an interesting fact that, despite its large size, Western Australia is home to only around two million people.

Information retrieved from australiafacts.org